Today’s message summary of August 14, 2016 from Pastor Gus Brown:
These messages about the end times are for the benefit of sharing with those who want to know more about the Lord and to be aware of the signs that are present and yet to come.
Hosea 4:6a
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Whose fault is it for the Millennium? The Millennium is set up to show how mankind has been evil, and this period is to represent what it originally was like in the Garden of Eden (Adam and Eve).
Do we, as Christians, perform good works, or not? Throughout history, people have tried every means possible to make the world a better place to live.
Some Christians think that this is the wrong thing to do.
Please understand that everything that Christians do should be with the purpose of presenting Jesus, in order that it brings people to encounter the presence of Jesus Christ.
People are to remember that we are the salt of the world (Matthew 5:13). Salt is a seasoning and a preservative. Christians are to be the seasoning and preservers of humanity. We are in place to witness and work on His behalf to bring as many people as possible to Christ.
Even the best efforts of people to bring others to Jesus Christ have been unsuccessful. A sinful nature creates an imperfect environment, but it does not mean that we do not continue to work for the best.
Ephesians 6:12-13
For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
What people have never been able to do, Jesus does in the Millennium by setting forth a perfect environment for people.
The Millennium is the last event that will take place on the old earth if you have the last battle with Satan at the end of the Millennium. Everything from this point will take place in heaven. The White Throne Judgment will be in heaven and follows the destruction of the old earth.
Important events of the Millennium:
- Jesus will be on earth in bodily form. He will, from that point, never leave His people again.
- Satan is bound. His activities will be restricted (Genesis 3:13).
- The people will live in the environment of Adam.
- People will have the free choice to worship and obey Jesus. (The same free will that Adam and Eve had.)
- One thousand years will not change the heart of Satan.
Romans 10:17 ESV
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
People work to try to improve their old nature, but the old nature cannot be improved. It can only die. Your old nature must die to self. God has to create a new nature in you.
People that go through the Millennium will…
- Obey without knowing Jesus as Savior. Why? (You are in a disastrous place without Jesus Christ being at the head of your life.)
Isaiah 11:3-9
His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge
by what He sees with His eyes,
He will not execute justice
by what He hears with His ears,
but He will judge the poor righteously
and execute justice for the oppressed of the land.
He will strike the land
with discipline from His mouth,
and He will kill the wicked
with a command from His lips.
Righteousness will be a belt around His loins;
faithfulness will be a belt around His waist.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the goat.
The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together,
and a child will lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze,
their young ones will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit,
and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.
None will harm or destroy another
on My entire holy mountain,
for the land will be as full
of the knowledge of the Lord
as the sea is filled with water.
Like the church, there can be an outward conformity without an inward reality of Jesus. The heart of the person must change to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior.
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is more deceitful than anything else,
and incurable—who can understand it?
- There will be no war.
Micah 4:2-4
…and many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about His ways
so we may walk in His paths.”
For instruction will go out of Zion
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He will settle disputes among many peoples
and provide arbitration for strong nations
that are far away.
They will beat their swords into plows,
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nation will not take up the sword against nation,
and they will never again train for war.
But each man will sit under his grapevine
and under his fig tree
with no one to frighten him.
For the mouth of the Lord of Hosts
has promised this.
- There will be no killing of people by other people.
- People will live a long life.
Isaiah 65:20-22
In her, a nursing infant will no longer live
only a few days, or an old man not live out his days.
Indeed, the youth will die at a hundred years,
and the one who misses a hundred years will be cursed.
People will build houses and live in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They will not build and others live in them;
they will not plant and others eat.
For My people’s lives will be
like the lifetime of a tree.
My chosen ones will fully enjoy
the work of their hands.
- There will be no divorce, physical problems (no disease), drunkenness, or addiction. There will not be any poor, and there will not be any hunger.
It only makes you wonder how people can experience all of this and yet walk away from Him.
Who rules with Jesus, and why?
He will set up a ruling class of righteous people, and will give authority to those who are faithful in service to Him.
Revelation 20:4
Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the people who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of God’s word, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with the Messiah for 1,000 years.
Why do they get to rule with Jesus and not the present saints?
They all come with a supernatural body, while others do not have such a thing.
1 Corinthians 15:40-57
There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is different from that of the earthly ones. There is a splendor of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; for one star differs from another star in splendor. So it is with the resurrection of the dead:
Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption;
sown in dishonor, raised in glory;
sown in weakness, raised in power;
sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth
and made of dust;
the second man is from heaven.
Like the man made of dust,
so are those who are made of dust;
like the heavenly man,
so are those who are heavenly.
And just as we have borne
the image of the man made of dust,
we will also bear
the image of the heavenly man.
Brothers, I tell you this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and corruption cannot inherit incorruption. Listen! I am telling you a mystery:
We will not all fall asleep,
but we will all be changed,
in a moment, in the blink of an eye,
at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised incorruptible,
and we will be changed.
For this corruptible must be clothed
with incorruptibility,
and this mortal must be clothed
with immortality.
When this corruptible is clothed
with incorruptibility,
and this mortal is clothed
with immortality,
then the saying that is written will take place:
Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Death, where is your victory?
Death, where is your sting?
Now the sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ!
- Difference between a perishable and imperishable body
- There is a body of dishonor and a body raised in glory
- Weakness versus power
- Natural body and a spiritual body (one for earth and one for heaven)
There must be a change in the body of a person from corruptible to incorruptible…in other words, to be more like Jesus.
Romans 8:28-30
We know that all things work together[a] for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified.
1 John 3:2
Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.
The rest of the dead that are not reigning with Christ because they will be the unbelievers:
Revelation 20:5-6
The rest of the dead did not come to life until the 1,000 years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of the Messiah, and they will reign with Him for 1,000 years.
Akron Alliance Fellowship 